1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a network device, an information processing apparatus, a control method therefor, a computer program, a computer-readable storage medium, and a network system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, the print data generated by a client PC is transmitted to a printer on a network to make the printer print it.
Along with this operation, in order to improve user-friendliness and ease of use in terms of the use of a network compliant printer (network printer), there have been developed application software for searching for a network printer which provides services, utility software, an operating system, and the like. Various kinds of protocols and architectures have been proposed in this case. Typical examples are Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-038956 (to be referred to as reference 1 hereinafter) and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-362594 (to be referred to as reference 2 hereinafter).
In addition, a plurality of enterprises and standardization organizations have proceeded with specification formation to extensively apply “plug and play”, which has been applied to local I/O connection printers, to network printers.
For example, UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) which has been mainly developed by Microsoft, USA, and WSD (Web Services for Devices (WS-Discovery/WS-MetadataExchange)) are known. In addition, there is BMLlinks (Business Machine Linkage Service) which has been progressed by Japan Business Machine Makers Industrial Association (JBMIA), Renedzvous supported by OS X developed by Apple Computer USA, and the like.
As a mechanism which allows a user to select a printer suitable for his/her purpose and application from many printers connected to a network, software which operates on servers or clients connected to the same network has been proposed (e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-285510; to be referred to as reference 3 hereinafter). This software is designed to search for network printers, acquire the functions of the network printers, and display them in the form of a list, thereby prompting the user to select a printer. At the same time, if a printer driver which controls the printer does not exist in the client of the user, the software installs the printer driver in substitution for the user.
The conventional technique described above, however, only enumerates a plurality of printers as candidates to be selected by the user, but does not specify any printer which the user should use. After all, the user needs to, for example, make inquiries to the administrator who controls such network systems and printers, or the administrator needs to announce a printer to be used. That is, it often occurs that the operation load on the administrator does not reduce.
The reason lies in the lack of knowledge of printer functions on the part of the user.
With the recent improvement in the performance of printers, various kinds of printer functions have been developed. In general, however, the user does not require functions other than printer functions which he/she uses, and has no interest in them. However, information from printers enumerated as candidates by the conventional technique contains information other than the information in which the user has interest, thus making it difficult to specify an optimal printer to be used. That is, the user requires an advice from the administrator.
Another reason is that when users are made to select printers to be used, selection will concentrate on a specific printer. When a plurality of printers are enumerated, the users strongly tend to select a printer with most functions. In addition, if a printer which has been used fails, and the user must select an alternative printer, he/she tends to select a printer of the same model as that has been used. As a consequence, the same printer is repeatedly used. In order to make the frequencies of use of printers uniform, the administrator needs to designate a printer for, for example, each department.
Still another reason lies in a network policy. For example, in some case, the administrator strictly manages applications and drivers installed in the client PCs of users. When such management is to be performed, it is necessary to avoid new printer drivers from being randomly installed in the client PC of each user. The user should be made to select a printer which can print by using the printer driver which has been used. If, however, the user does not recognize the PDL (Page Description Language) or the like used by the printer, it is difficult to make the user select such a printer. This makes it necessary for the administrator to designate a printer to be used.
As described above, when a plurality of network printers are used, the operation load on the system administrator increases.
Assume that an old printer connected to a network is replaced by a new printer, or a given printer cannot be used for a short period of time due to paper jam or maintenance such as toner change. In this case, the administrator needs to introduce an alternative printer to each user. Although the administrator may introduce the printer to each user by mail or the like in advance, all the users do not always have knowledge enough to set or change the printer driver for each PC. In reality, few users have such knowledge, and hence the administrator must perform setting operation for each PC.
As a technique of making an alternative printer print at the time of maintenance for such a short period of time, reference 3 discloses a technique of registering in advance the IP of an alternative printer in a printer to be maintained and directly transferring print data to the IP of the alternative printer during maintenance.
According to patent reference 3, however, a printer which can serve as an alternative needs to process the same PDL as that processed by the printer to be maintained. In addition, there is still a problem that it is difficult for the user to know whether the printer used as an alternative exists. Furthermore, if the printer to be maintained is disconnected from the network, the problem of inability of even transferring print data to the alternative printer remains unsolved.